About

So who are we and what is this whole thing actually about?

Delta Farce are a group of roleplayers based primarily in Cardiff in the UK. Once upon a time we were a face to face roleplaying group and have bumbled our way through a variety of different games. Disaster struck in 2014 when one of our players relocated to Canada; fortunately with the help of Roll20 and Google Hangouts we were able to continue playing.

After a handful of one shots to test the set up we’ve decided to record our sessions, edit them into something a bit more reasonable (nobody wants to listen to us talk about pizza and pie for twenty minutes) and release them as a podcast. At least initially we will be playing Dungeon World which is our first proper foray into improv heavy roleplaying.

And so, welcome to Fumbling and Mumbling.

About Ben

Fiona thinks…

Ben is the man who says ‘This is just going to be a bit of lighthearted fun with no real prep’ and then goes and does sixty hours of prep. Responsible for the sad death of Father Christmas and for giving me a massive and completely undeserved bounty (you will pay for that one day), he copes admirably with the ineptitude of a group that has the attention span of a five year old and an unconquerable shopping obsession.

Matt thinks…

Ben is a most excellent GM who I’m in awe of when I think of my own GMing attempts. As a player he puts the most effort into out-of-game and back story events that I think I’ve ever seen, often resulting in reams of in-character journal entries.

Most memorable moment: After finding a Shaman’s occult outfit, deciding to try it on – THEN, even after the sanity depleting effects, doing it AGAIN (for entirely plausible in-character reasons).

Stephen thinks…

Ben is the youngest of the group, which makes it even more impressive that he’s the best GM in our little circle. I can’t work out if I should be in awe about the amount of preparation he puts into his games or feel pity for him – either way, it’s more work than this band of misfits deserves 🙂 He obviously enjoys doing the work though as he even does it when he’s playing – props and background material for his characters are always appearing, from private eye-style reports for Cthulhu to drinks in the shape of blood bags in Vampire to printed run-time listings for his Star Wars droid. The man needs a hobby to calm him down from this hobby.

Finest moment: mentioning how the party (in Vampire) had had little problem dealing with humans in a combat situation – about a minute before said humans blew him up with a grenade.

About Fiona

Fiona is a collector of bizarre animals and shiny trinkets.

Ben thinks…

A common theme with Fiona’s characters is an obsession with animals, the more unusual the better. She has a Nexu in Star Wars (think a giant, ferocious, four-eyed tiger on steroids), a Quimaera in 7th Sea (the beak of a pelican; the body of a lizard; webbed feet and small, furry bat like wings) and is still clinging to the hope of a zombie squirrel in Call of Cthulhu. As for shiny trinkets, she loves all forms of jewellery but seems to have a special place in her heart for magical or cursed items that grant her access to powers that no mortal should ever know. I don’t know how her characters haven’t all died horrible deaths.

Matt thinks…

If there’s a small furry animal somewhere, Fe will want to take care of it; in fact, even the not so cute animals will garner her favour, probably more so. She is usually also the most competent character in combat and will also hoard all the loot.

Stephen thinks…

Fiona (or Fe as you may hear her being referred to) has, as I’m sure everyone else has mentioned, a frankly unhealthy need to make at least one animal friend in every game she plays, and only slightly less need to shop for fun stuff. She also, after experiencing the back-biting of a White Wolf Vampire game, tends to expect the worst of people in games – particularly player characters. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to work out how a Jedi on the run from an entire planet is going to be able to find a pet wolf-beast…

Iconic image: flying off into the sunset on the groups ship accompanied only by her pet giant cat monster – and deciding not to bring the ship back.

About Stephen

Stephen knew an important secret but has probably forgotten it by now.

Ben thinks…

As a player Steve’s characters range from honourable nobility and well educated wizards to crude (and bordering on alcoholic) bare knuckle boxers and primative foreigners; he probably has secrets that the other players don’t know about, unfortunately he’s probably also forgotten about them himself. As a GM Steve is my opposite, I normally do masses of prep and write copious notes, Steve on the other hand does a little bit of prep and then just makes everything up as he goes along. I’ve never understood how his games still manage to work so well (1920s Vampire springs to mind) but it’s largely this that inspired me to go low prep and led to Dungeon World (which is now a favourite).

Fiona thinks…

In the interests of marital harmony I can’t really be too mean about Steve 🙂 He has terrible luck with rolls which has led to some interesting moments (nuns in libraries) and a few memorable quotations (‘This wouldn’t happen in civilised climes!’), and had an ongoing love affair with a woman named after a piece of furniture. He also GMd the most backstabbing, cut-throat, untrustworthy, suspicious, psychopathic group of vampires ever to roll dice.

Matt thinks…

Steve is the person most likely to change characters mid-campaign, he gets bored with his character concepts quite quickly. He’s does come up with interesting character concepts – so this swapping is never terrible.

Most memorable moment: Punching a nun as a result of a failed attempt at stealth.

About Matthew

Matthew is perpetually planning to do prep but too busy with work.

Ben thinks…

I wish Matt could prep faster (he’s the most competent of us and has an important job that keeps him busy); the reason I wish this is because I love the games he runs. We’re currently playing through the Masks of Nyarlathotep but it has become apparent that he is tailoring lots of aspects of the game to our individual characters (I haven’t played the campaign before so I don’t know exactly how much) and the experience is incredibly enjoyable. Matt moving to Canada was incredibly disheartening, the fact that we have switched from an entirely analogue experience to a mishmash of computers, cameras, microphones and monitors so that we could keep playing is a testament to how important he is to the group.

Fiona thinks…

Matt used to be our friend until he decided that a fulfilling job, a country of legendary friendliness and great snowboarding on his doorstep were somehow better than us. We’ve never really got over this betrayal. However, since we’re inherently nice people, we’re prepared to overlook this in view of the fact that he’s such a fun, genuinely great guy – and how could we bear to miss moments like his attending a royal masquerade ball attired in a mongoose costume.

Stephen thinks…

Matt, somewhat scarily, seems to share too much of my sense of humour, which means often sessions get easily derailed as we start gibbering about random crap, but he always makes games more fun. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he brings essential skills into play with his characters, in fact he often seems to be a cause of much of the ‘farce’ in delta farce, but professionalism is in short supply amongst all our characters to be honest.